The Sunk-Cost Fallacy: Good Money After Bad

My mother spent three weeks in the hospital in August. Her extended stay affected me in lots of little ways I couldn’t anticipate. To escape my daily worries, I went searching for a little solace — I re-activated my World of Warcraft account.

World of Warcraft is a subscription-based online computer game. As a player, you become immersed in a virtual fantasy world, interacting with thousands of other players from around the globe. It’s great fun. Enjoyed in moderation, World of Warcraft (or any other computer game) can be a fantastic pastime.

Unfortunately, I’m not so good with enjoying things in moderation. I had quit the game cold turkey several years ago because it was consuming my life. This time, I made an effort to keep my play under control. For the first week, I limited myself to an hour a day. By last week, however, I was playing at least four hours every day, and other areas of my life — my fitness, my mental health, my relationships — were beginning to suffer.

“But I can’t quit,” I thought. “I paid $77.94 for a six-month subscription. Plus I’ve already invested 80 hours into the game. I should keep going.” This line of thinking was dumb, and I knew it. The money had already been spent, as had the time. It was gone. Chasing it with additional money and additional time wouldn’t make things better. I was engaging in the sunk-cost fallacy.

The sunk-cost fallacyThe sunk-cost fallacy describes our tendency to throw good money after bad. Just because you’ve already spent money on something doesn’t mean you should continue spending money on it. Sometimes the opposite is true. Psychologically, the more you spend on something, the less you’re willing to let it go. In Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes (and How to Correct Them), the authors write:

Once your money is spent, it’s gone. It has no relevance. To the extent you can incorporate that notion into your financial decisions, you’ll be that much better off for trying. If you’re debating the sale of an investment (or a home), for example, remember that your goal is to maximize your wealth and your enjoyment. The goal is not to justify your decision to buy the investment at whatever price you originally paid for it. Who cares? What counts, in terms of getting where you want to be tomorrow, is what that investment is worth today.

It’s important not to consider past costs when making financial decisions, but to make decisions based on future costs and benefits.

Often we succumb to the sunk-cost fallacy because we don’t want to feel wasteful or to admit we made a mistake. All that Stuff I’m trying to get out of my life is nothing more than a manifestation of this: I know how much money I’ve spent for the things I own, and so am reluctant to let them go. What I need to realize is that it’s not what these things were worth to me in the past that’s important, but how much they’re worth to me now. If I do not value them, and they’re just taking up space, then they’re better off out of the house.

Learning to walk away
We all make financial mistakes. When you realize you’ve done something wrong, try not to think about the money (and time and emotion) you’ve already spent. Instead, decide what to do based on the future. From Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes:

Imagine that you’ve got a ten-year-old minivan that needs a new transmission. The sunk cost fallacy tells us that you’re more likely to plunk down the money for the new transmission if you’ve recently sunk hundreds or thousands on repairs into your clunker before that. So ask yourself: If someone gave you that minivan as a gift yesterday, would you spend the money today to get it running? If the answer is “no” — because that large an investment is not worth it on its merit — then it’s probably time to think about buying a new car.

Similarly, it is relevant only to your ego that your Amalgamated Thingamabobs stock, for which you paid $100 a share, is now selling for $25 a share. If you believe that lower price is a bargain, hold on and maybe even buy more shares. But if it is not — if, given the chance, you would pass on the opportunity to buy the same shares at any price today — then it is time to sell.

When Kris and I were young and stupid, we paid $1200 to join a “consumers club”, through which we could purchase furniture and housewares for reduced prices. Though the sales pitch had been convincing, it quickly became clear that this was a bad deal for us. We had to drive half an hour to reach the club, and when we got there, they never really had what we wanted. Yet we remained members for many years, dutifully paying the $75 annual fee. “We’ve already spent so much,” we’d say. “It doesn’t make sense to quit.”

Eventually we wised up. Just because we’d already spent a ton of money, that didn’t justify continuing to do so.

Similarly, I’ve come to my senses about World of Warcraft. I’ve decided to say good-bye to Jahdu, my level 42 Orcish hunter. It hurts to think of the $77.94 I paid for a six-month subscription “going to waste” — not to mention all the time I spent over the past few weeks — but I know that it’s better not to pine after sunk costs, and will instead look to the future.

I’ll get better value from my time if I spend it reading and writing about personal finance!

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Hi JD, this is just what I was looking for to kick-start a convo with mi esposo. My personal example of a sunk cost: We already own a timeshare (excellent value, we love it, the big money was “sunk” all right but will pay off for decades in high-value vacations). Last year I bought in to a points system with a different “vacation ownership” company. The program doesn’t work as described and we haven’t used it at all. I’m going to “sell” i.e. get out of it. We did get two nice free two-night stays at linked-in resorts, but the money I put down is gone, baby, gone. Doesn’t mean I should keep paying the monthly to keep the points – if I can’t use ’em like I want ’em, that “sunk cost” just gets bigger. So all y’all gamers out there … um … obsess much?? … try not to assume that an article that mentions WoW is *about* WoW, mmmkay?

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matt @ Thrive

Great blog, JD – one of my writing interns just sent me over a blog about sunk cost (after I loaned her my signed copy of Tom’s book) so it was funny to see them both in your post.

The thing about sunk-cost is that sometimes, it works in our favor and so it is hard to be as careful with it as we should be. Or rather, because we don’t always evaluate the past clearly, what we think is a sunk cost may not be.

Take marriage as a classic example. We know that couples that have been through hard times together and survived them tend to be able to use that shared experience to stay together later on. After a bad fight with your wife, you could say “Man, this is terrible, I’m married to someone I hate, I should cut my losses.” Fortunately, sunk cost swoops in to remind you that you’ve already sunk a bunch into your relationship, and it’d be a shame to lose all that effort by leaving now. And when you’ve calmed down, that sunk cost will have kept you in a marriage that probably isn’t such a bad one.

So the real question becomes knowing when sunk costs are hurting you and when they are keeping you in something that you’ll be sad to lose. You figure out how to know that, you let me know. *grins*

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KCLau

This is really a common trap for most people. If we look at it from another angle, for example, you spend money buying a book. If the book turn out to be not interesting, we tend to finish reading it too. But those ebook that you might have downloaded some where, which is free will forever sit in your hard disk without being opened after many years.

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Brad

I just play a completely paid for Age of Empires II game and whomp on the computer when I feel like vegging out for a while. Not quite the “challenge” of the more modern games, but completely free and no additional monetary cost.

Of course the time spent still costs, but that is a whole other issue.

Being OCD is really the root issue on the latter…. 🙂

Brad

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Mary

I’ve declined to start playing WoW because of just this problem. Many friends have tried to get me to play; one even used the argument, “But we live so far away and this is the only chance we’d get to talk to one another!”

Sorry, dude. Me and WoW is like an alcoholic with booze. He can’t have just one drink, and I can’t play for just one hour. I like you and all, and I wish we talked more, but I just can’t do it.

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chris

Excellent article, great explanation of the sunk-cost-fallacy, sorry to see your post get derailed into a WoW discussion. 🙂

I don’t want to take things further off track, but I just wanted to point out some wonderful irony: when reading your blog through google reader, Google decided that your post would be the *perfect* spot to place an add for a wow gold sellering company. 🙂

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BTGNow.net

Wow, how did I miss this post? Shows me to take a day off from the blogosphere.

And it’s all about paying the fee monthly rather than thinking you’ll save money buying 6-12 month increments. Means I can quit anytime and still be out less than it costs to go to a movie with friends. I’m glad someone else thinks there’s valid financial lessons in video games!

GREAT post!

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Big Rob

Two words: Guild Wars

Better graphics and no monthly fee.

Sunk cost is just time + cost of the game.

However, I do sympathize. I had a problem with Doom, Doom 2, Diablo 2, Civilization 2, and Call of Duty.

My wife and kids cured me of my old video game habits. I resisted but finally came to the conclusion that it wasn’t good for me and my family…plus I just don’t have the time anymore.

As an occasional indulgence in moderation, …sure…but do not be mastered by it.

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almost there

partgypsy, we gave a rescue dog. It has cost us lots of money in thyroid meds, weight control and as an older dog a special diet. But being dog lovers we realize taking a dog is for the life of the dog. The devotion and love the dog shows is beyond any money that we spend.

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Brian Arnold

@Zeph Greenwell

Sorry, but your guarantee is worthless. Let’s break it down.

I do spend less, and that’s great. My quality of life isn’t suffering, and if anything, has improved, because I’m not throwing away my money at theaters and dining out like I used to.

I don’t eat less. I eat better. That’s a great improvement. I can even say I’ve lost 25 pounds.

Sleep less? No. I sleep just as much as I always have. Perhaps there is the occasional night where I stay up, but I only do it when I know that I can sleep in a little the next day.

Socialize less? Quite the contrary. I still get together with friends just as much as I used to. If anything, my wife has actually become more social thanks to WoW’s influence, and we get together with friends more frequently than before. We’re even flying out to California for BlizzCon next month (which is a big cost, but one we’ve been saving for and are using as our vacation this year) where we’ll be meeting some friends in person for the first time, and meeting up with others we’ve known for years who happen to share our hobby.

If you want to advance really fast, sure, they require massive amounts of time. However, WoW is easily the most casual-friendly MMO on the market today, which attributes to its success. All of my friends hit level 70 (current cap) three or four months before I did. I eventually made it up there and have a decked-out character now, which I did bit by bit over time. It’s very easy to get on for an hour or two and feel a sense of progress and accomplishment.

I’ve never let my real life suffer because of an MMO. That being said, I realize many people have, and that it can be a serious problem for them. If you don’t have the willpower to sustain balance, then perhaps you shouldn’t dabble in it, but there are many people out there just like myself, that can partake of it in a healthy fashion.

All things in moderation.

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Zeph Greenwell

@Brian Arnold

Like JD says, the other costs are the problems. MMORPGs REQUIRE a HUGE investment in time. While you’re not playing all your friends are getting ahead of you and there is a lot of peer pressure to keep playing. If you’re not willing to sacrifice your real life on the alter of WoW (or FFXI or others) then its best to avoid them. I guarantee that anyone who gets into this game will spend less, eat less, sleep less, and socialize (outside of the game) less. If you think that’s a good thing, that’s your decision.

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Kevin

@Runner Girl

“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted” John Lennon

The concept of wasting time lies in the eye of the beholder.

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Shirley

J.D.–I’ve done the same type of thing, and more than once. I would join Weight Watcher’s and buy the multi-week plan because that was the best deal. However, as you can guess, I would only go for a short while, so in effect the times I did go ended up costing way more per visit than the usual “pay as you go” method. Weight Watcher’s can be a great weight loss method, but it’s just not a plan that works for me.

It’s smart of you to bail out now. Some things we can just discipline ourselves on. We all have them.

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Denise

It sounds like your “consumer club” was UniMart?

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J.D.

Jocelyn wrote: You paid for a 6-month subscription, even knowing how addictive WoW is.

Yeah. Dumb, huh? I knew it was foolish at the time, but I couldn’t make myself pay for just one month. “I can save by doing six!” I thought. HAHAHAHAHA.

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jocelyn taijeron

You paid for a 6-month subscription, even knowing how addictive WoW is. There must have been a reason you did that. You could have just paid for the monthly and canceled it after one month. I’ve done it several times. I play for a couple months, then get busy and cancel my membership. Reactivate it when my schedule is slower, play for one month, cancel again. It’s a great game and you’ll never lose your character. I agree it can be very addictive, but there are other ways to combat that. Set a timer, only play it after you’ve ran your mile, etc. Anyway. Hope you work it out!

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Michelle

[quote]I feel like today I failed as a writer! 🙂
I don’t think I made it clear what the sunk-cost fallacy is. People seem to be equating “sunk cost” with “waste of money”, and while there’s an element of that here, they’re not the same thing.

Even something good can have a sunk cost. A sunk cost is just anything you’ve already spent. It’s not necessarily good or bad — it just is. The sunk-cost fallacy is believing you should spend more because you’ve already spent some. That’s what I was trying to write about.

Alas, I may have to tackle this topic again in the future…[/quote]

i feel this was directed at me, as i suppose in my previous post i took offense to your problem with WoW though i should not have.

for YOU it was definitely sunk, you only played and continued to play and pay because you had already paid so much and invested so much time into it. sometimes i can feel that way about the game, but like i said i would rather stay in and play something than go out…but then again im no good at budgeting which is why i subscribe to your blogs!

keep up the good work, your writing is fine.

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J.D.

As many have said, I think that financially, MMORPGs (and World of Warcraft, in particular) are damn frugal. For $15 a month, I could meet all my entertainment needs. During the month of August, my spending dropped sharply, and I’m certain it’s because WoW was sucking up my time.

However, there are other costs associated with the games, at least for those who cannot control ourselves. These other costs are the problem.

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Brian Arnold

@78 (Zeph Greenwell)

Frankly, I find that advice to be appalling and disrespectful. Just because some people are unable to control themselves does not mean that it’s a waste.

I view my MMORPG subscription as something of a lightning rod to avoid other spending. My wife and I used to drop $20 every single weekend going out to see movies. Combine that with going out to dinner almost every time (anywhere from another $20-$40), and we were probably spending an easy $200-$300 a month in that form of entertainment. Now, we eat out less, cook at home more, and hang out in WoW for awhile when we can. We’re not only eating better, we’re spending less.

Because we have WoW in our lives, we don’t partake in a lot of *other* expensive hobbies like movies or DVDs or heck, even other games all that much. I estimate that my spending is way down, thanks to WoW. We pay $30/mo for two accounts, and it’s a great way to get a lot of entertainment for a relatively low price point.

Like all things, moderation is key. Sure, people get hooked on it, but at least it’s a more easily controlled “addiction”. It’s not like trying to quit smoking or a drug or something (although I’m sure there are some people who think it feels like that).

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Zeph Greenwell

Here’s some good financial advice, never play a MMORPG with a monthly subscription. Those things are so addictive they will eat up every other aspect of you life. Either that or you’ll have to quit playing them altogether which also means you’ve wasted your money. Its a lesson I learned the hard way.

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Kristen a.k.a. The Frugal Girl

I never knew there was a name for it! I’ll have to file that one away.

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Megan

My personal sunk cost fallacy/buyers remorse item is my car. I bought a new Nissan 350Z last summer, somewhat on a whim. I also have an older Corolla, so it’s not like I need the 350Z. My problem is deciding whether or not keeping the 350Z is worth it. It’s an extra $550 payment a month I could have in my pocket, but at the same time, I do enjoy driving it when I take it out for a spin. The sunk cost is just one of the many factors that goes into weighing my decision to keep it or sell it and lose money to depreciation. This whole conversation definitely gives me something to consider.

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Mike

@ Pat Wagner…

I suppose you could petition them for a refund and see if it works.

If you buy a 3 month subscription on Jan 1st, and you cancel on Feb 1st, you can still play the game until March 31st. You just cancel the automatic recurring subscription, so you can still play until your time block runs out.

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Cairsten

I wish the people advocating that you sell your account on eBay would stop doing so. It’s against Blizzard’s Terms of Service, which you agreed to when you signed up, and by selling or buying your account you contribute to degrading the game experience for those who still play.

A large part of the game is cooperative and social; players group with others and need to rely on those others on a regular basis. The levelling process is designed to teach a new player the ins and outs of their character, not just hand them a levelled character they don’t know how to handle.

The person who buys your account has already proven (as will have you) that they don’t care about following rules. They probably also won’t care about anything but their own gain in anything else, either — hardly a gift to the other, legitimate players who then have the bad luck to encounter your replacement. It’s like spitting in the pot of soup just because you, personally, decided not to have another bowl.

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Sherilan

I really appreciate the idea that we have to think what things are worth to us now. If I can hold that in mind while sorting, that will really help. I didn’t know the term “sunk costs” but have bought into it too much, hence the overweight house.

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Andrea

I do not even know what you are talking about- and I am glad. I do not even buy magazine subscriptions- – much less game subscriptions. I think our lawn is sunk money- I wish I had the nerve to let it all go to weeds(we would cut them really!) and not keep trying to get grass to grow. I am afraid our neighbors would go after us like the villagers after Frankenstein. Our next house(5 years into retirement- 7 years from now) will not have a lawn (or not one we have to care for)

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zh

I spent 2.5 yrs playing WoW and loved it so much I had to quit cold turkey; I couldn’t stop myself from playing it 6-8 hours a day. I ignored my kids, ignored my husband, my house was a mess, I didn’t want to do anything but play that computer. It was kind of disturbing. (But I still miss it, especially in times of stress.)

I think a lot of the sunk cost is in the endgame. You can casually level the toon anytime you want, but once you get into the endgame, it’s all about the time you spend raiding. You do it all the time but you never have as many epics as the next player — you feel like you have to spend *more* time raiding in order to get the items you want, but then you go to the next dungeon or they put up a new patch and suddenly all your stuff is “worthless” and you suddenly have to raid for weeks on end again.

I remember my guild spent months and months on Blackwing Lair and then … Blizz let everyone level to 70 and our stuff (which was the best in game) was not even as good as the greens you got on your 61 quests. Bleah.

I’ve not posted a comment before, but love your site and refer everyone I know to it! Great job! Thank you for your contributions!

Regarding your WOW account – if you’re unable to get a refund, as Pat suggests, perhaps you could put your “account” up for sale on eBay or Craigs List? Someone might be VERY interested in picking up your character – and hard work invested – for a fraction of the joining fee – and you can recoup some of the cost without having the temptation of logging back on…

Food for thought!

Thanks!
$mart Girl

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Pat Wagner

This is probably an ignorant question,but why wouldn’t you get a pro-rated refund for the time left on the WOW account? Woudln’t you just lose 1 months worth? I got a refund from City of Heroes when I dropped that.

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handworn

“Once your money is spent, it’s gone.”

That’s exactly the kind of distinction I was making in The Completely Consumed Increment. Your money is only gone for the CCI part of your purchase. For the part of the purchase that was not CCI– the actual market value of an item– your money is simply wearing a different suit.

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Chris

@JD:
I don’t think people are missing the point about sunk-cost. You just picked a topic that was close to home for many people, and everyone likes arguing a little bit. The point of time and money being already spent came across strong, just the reference itself was stronger.

If you had wrote about poker like the comment by Shanel Yang, I would have been writing back the same thing. Three years invested and about $2000 in personal buy ins got me 2 years of tuition, but drove me away from cards forever (can’t play for fun anymore, so I don’t play at all).

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William

I haven’t read all the other posts so I don’t know if this has been brought up.

the idea of throwing money out just because we’ve put some money in something which comes up even in money games, namely: poker.
One of the first rules to be applied in poker is: if your hand is crap, and you know your beat, no matter how much money you’ve invested in the pot, it is useless to try to scare your opponent by throwing money at the pot. What is lost is lost, why make your situation worse?

The probability of your hand getting better is small, and you’re just making somebody else wealthier…

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Olivia

Oh boy, have I been down this road! Mine was with a sell-at-home cosmetic company. From the cost of catalogs, my start up kit, samples, items that I ordered that the customer changed their mind about, time, gas toting items to and fro, I lost a LOT of money. It was hard to give up, since I had spent so much money to get started, and I REALLY wanted it to work out. I’m glad I finally accepted the truth- most of those companies make their profit from signing up new reps, and selling their catalogs.

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Lee

JD,

As you’ve done in areas, why not get your wife to assist you in enjoying WoW in moderation (which as you say, can be a great thing). Set up the parental controls on WoW and limit yourself to an hour a day. Get Kris to set the password on the controls. I bet you never ask her for it, and you’ll get enjoyment out of the game without any danger of it becoming a compulsion. You can enjoy the rest of that six month subscription without it becoming a burden.

Lee.

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Double

A well written article. I have been there and done that many times: the sunk-cost fallacy.

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Runner Girl

I am just giggling reading both the article and the posts. WoW is a game that my boyfriend has played on and off since it came out, more so on than off! I am amazed about the amount of time that is wasted on this game. There have been times where he has played the game constantly for days and days. It’s interesting as well to see that as we get out of the college phase and moving on with life, the game still is very important to him. In case you aren’t aware, there are blogs and threads on WoW much like there are for personal finance and any other hobby you can think of.

Just interesting to hear the other opinions on both the game, and idea of sunk-cost, as there are hobbies I have that are the same (Although I say not to the same extent 🙂 )

The conversation we have had to have over the game is what is a fair amount to play while still having time for grad classes, and our life outside of the apartment 🙂 I have come to understand that this is a hobby for him and a way to unwind, but totally understand the problem that this game can cause both in relationships and productivity in general.

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Andy

WoW is probably my favorite game, ever.. I quit WoW after getting a job. Now I spend too much time doing things related to my job. =(

You can meet lots of interesting people in a game like WoW, and you can certainly make friends playing the game. Just gotta remember, you still have responsibilities to take care of and friends who you could meet up with a short phone call.

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Eden

I have a hard time overcoming the sunk cost of my WoW habit not for the money, but for the time I’ve sunk into the game. I know it should work out the same logically, but I have a really hard time letting go of my dumb little fake characters that I have spent so many hours of my life on…that is much more difficult to let go of than the money for me.

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Mike

To ^_~ @ Post 51:

“Just being able to sell your stuff for example, means 10 minutes spent afk flying to the AH, then 10 mins back to where you were. That’s a simple example, and it only gets worse as you level.”

Answer = Mail all your stuff to your level 1 alt & let him Auction House it, then you don’t have to waste more time flying your main toon all about. The stuff you mail your alts is received immediately. You used to have to wait an hour but they fixed that thankfully.

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leigh

sunk cost:
4 years done in grad school. what’s one more?

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Sam

I got addicted during my college days in StarCraft. It only stopped when my desktop pc finally gave up after spending more than 6 hours everynight on it. Yeah, money wasted goes to electricity, lost some opportunity cost as the time could have used for making web projects during college and earned money from it.

Which is why younger adults were more likely to commit to a situation if they had already invested money into it, and that older adults showed a more balanced fiscal perspective of the same situation.

About three years ago I knew it was time for me to quit smoking. I finally had the gumption and determination to do it.

Of course, if you quit, you throw away the cigarettes you’re not going to smoke anymore. I had an almost-full pack and throwing that away was no problem. Four bucks, no big deal. In fact I felt kind of proud I wasted that money, because throwing that pack away was a symbolic gesture of “I don’t need you anymore!”

Back then, American Spirit would send you a free sample carton of cigarettes. The second day of quitting was driving me bonkers. That day, in the mail, came the package of cigarettes I’d forgot I’d sent out for months ago. And they included an extra carton, too. Twenty packs of cigarettes!

I hadn’t even paid for the things, but I had such a hard time not keeping and using them. They were free! That was like $100 of cigarettes I was “wasting” if I tossed them.

I thought about selling them to some smoker or another I knew, or even just giving them away. But I was quitting because I knew how terrible and addictive the things were. I felt it would be hypocritical just to keep someone else’s addiction going.

So I couldn’t sell them, give them away, or above all, smoke them. Throwing them away was painfully difficult. It was like throwing away a free hundred dollar bill that came in the mail. It was for the best, but it was hard, even though I hadn’t spent anything on them and I was saving money in the future (a lot of money) by not having to smoke anymore. Sometimes sunk costs come for free, I guess…

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Abbott

If anyone wants to recoup some buyer’s remorse investment, here’s an idea: start some forum or club for “World of Warcraft” widows; people whose partners are so engrossed in World of Warcraft that they have turned into “my spouse, the computer extension.”

I visited some friends up in summer and all their boyfriends or husbands had become World of Warcraft addicts. I said, “You guys should start a club to complain about how your boyfriends are playing WoW. You could hold club meetings while they’re playing.” And they said, “I think every woman in America would join that.” Ha!

And, to JD:

It is totally great and exemplary when you know your limits, financially and personally. Sunk-cost fallacy ties into a lot of emotions people have, and that can be a good way to get yourself out of something that just isn’t what you need at the moment. If you’re changing because you don’t want to waste money, or you change for a personal reason and your money habits change, too, it’s good either way. But I think the sunk-cost fallacy adds a new perspective to thing.

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Todd A.

This sounds like my remote control truck problem ! I love the truck I have, with the paint I painstakingly applied to the body, the little “hop-ups” I’ve added to it. But I NEVER use it ! It collects dust on my desk. But, if I bought a remote control truck magazine, I’d probably spend another $100 on it by the end of the month !

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SuzAndTheCity

I’ve been thinking about this theory all day, and my mind started to wander tonight watching “deal or no deal.” So now I have a question: when do you think it is time to take the “deal”? I know you can calculate the odds, etc, but when I heard the contestant tonight saying “I had a $ in mind that I wanted to leave with” the whole ‘fallacy’ notion struck me again. When would you walk away with the money?

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Kevin

@ Jordan…

You bring up something I’ve thought about a bit in the past – considering sunk costs in decision making rather than trying to look past them.

When should you consider sunk costs? Any time you are not making a business decision. If you are making decisions in your love life or on a personal matter, I feel that you should factor in emotion and pleasure that the person brings into your life – not just how much you’ve spent in the relationship. Since these issues are not business decisions, the sunk cost fallacy doesn’t cleanly apply. Sure, you can analyze how much you’ve spent on someone, but there is an emotional aspect that is intertwined with that person as well.

What I’m trying to say: (in theory)business decision making should not be based on emotion. But many personal decisions SHOULD be based on emotion.

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^_~

In my opinion the main sunk cost in WoW isn’t the subscription you’ve paid for, it’s the stupidly high level of time that you have already invested in your character(s) – the opportunities forgone (like keeping your friends, improving yourself and spending time with your family).

“Enjoyed in moderation, World of Warcraft can be a fantastic pastime.”

I TOTALLY disagree. WoW is an absolutely HORRIBLE game. Terrible. Trust me, I have four 60s and a 70. It’s incredibly fun, but from a game design point of view it’s awful. Just like a slot machine – entertainment, pretty lights and sounds, but in terms of gameplay it gets blown out of the water by pong. The developers didn’t try to make a game, they tried to make an Everquest style virtual world, and added poor gaming elements to it when it sucked. But by far the largest aspect of the ‘gameplay’ is still defined by this stupid virtual world idea which has failed, so to do any gaming in WoW you are crushed by the presence of the virtual world idea. Just being able to sell your stuff for example, means 10 minutes spent afk flying to the AH, then 10 mins back to where you were. That’s a simple example, and it only gets worse as you level. If you want a virtual world play D&D. If you don’t then play TF2. You make it sound like “if only I had the time or could control myself it would be really entertaining and a great thing to do in my spare time…” – don’t think like that! Trust me, the facepalm-rate of WoW increases exponentially the more you play. Be glad you got out when you did. By quitting you have learned WoW’s most valuable lesson and have nothing left to get out of it.

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Ryan @ Smarter Wealth

This game sounds really really cool. I might get involved in it if I ever have some spare time.
Thanks for the post

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Greg

J.D., you’ve put a tag on the pain I’ve been feeling lately.

Five years ago, my wife and I built our “dream home” (I have come to hate that expression) in the country. We were able to do this in large part because we have always lived a frugal life as a married couple. For 10 years we worked to eliminate all school debt and the mortgage on our modest townhouse as we planned an ecological country home in which to raise our family.

To make a long story short, the building process blew us out of the water. From the moment we moved into our country house, it was clear we had made the wrong decision. The house was incomplete and the mortgage was 30% higher than we had anticipated.
But what were we to do? We had already sunk so much money into it. We couldn’t just walk away. We were invested, and we needed to finish the house and to show our children that you don’t just walk away from your mistakes. Sunk-cost fallacy written big.

So for the last five years, we did what we always do: budget tightly; garden; work like stink to pay down the mortgage, and do away with almost all non essentials while I worked to complete the house myself. We were paying down our new mortgage, but we weren’t having any fun.

This spring we finally decided to “cut our losses,” and we put our house for sale. Guess what? All summer only four people came out to see our “dream” house. Even though the housing market is still in pretty good shape up here in Ontario, we’re going to get hosed. Now all I can think of is all the smarter things I could have done with my money. Kind of a combo sunk-cost fallacy / buyer’s remorse complex 🙂

All that dreaming, cost, effort, heart ache, and mortgage interest are gone. Intellectually, I know the best perspective is to just walk away from the sunk costs. Emotionally, it’s very painful. Reading everyone else’s stories helps.

Thanks.

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deepali

I think relationships can be a good example of a sunk-cost fallacy – how many people continue to stick out a bad situation only because it’s “been so long”?

I am also wondering when you reach that point with investments whose value is dropping. For example, my 401K is going down the drain, but I’m still putting money into it… Do I rebalance? Hold? Fold?

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Adam

I think many of the comments here speak volumes about why personal finance is so hard for some people.

There’s no reason to avoid World of Warcraft, Diablo, Spore or any other video game. Just use a shred of moderation. Completely removing something from your life is the easy way out of a problem, without actually addressing the cause.

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Matt at Steadfast Finances

Good thing I saw this post before checking eBay for the new PC game SPORE.

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EscapeVelocity

Got me through graduate school, and continues to make it hard to just walk away, although I wasn’t able to get a job in my field and am now in a completely different line of work. Let my professional organization memberships lapse, but I still have a pile of books and old notes. Not about the money, but about the time.

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jerichohill

How do we go 40 posts without one mention of a nightelf mohawk?

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Early Retirement Extreme

You guys make me feel old. The last Warcraft I played was II. There’s a free turn based game as wesnoth.org — can be somewhat addictive.

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Mike

I started playing in Sept 2005, 3 years ago. I made alot of friends in that game while we raided MC/BWL, some of them actually live within a few hours of my house.

I’ve quit the game a few times since then, recently picking it up again. I found the best way to subscribe is to either get a 60 day game card, or just pay for one month with your CC, then after that you immediately go back in and cancel the recurring subscription. You’ll save a few bucks (per month) if you buy the 6 month deal, but I’d rather pay the extra dollar each month. If I only play for 2 months, then i’ve spent $30 rather than wasting 4 months & $60 if I’d bought the 6 month package.

During that month, you’ll know if you want to carry on for another month or if you want to put it on the shelf for a while.

It is a fantastic game for our long cold Canadian winters when we’re cooped up inside most days!

I have toons on a PVE server, and recently got a few 70s on PVP servers (ALL Horde toons, NO Alliance!). It’s really cheap, but I love waiting for an Alliance (even if they’re much lower than me) to start fighting some mobs and then gank them. Hee hee, that’s almost worth the $15 each time you do that.

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M****

I have pretty mixed feelings about WoW. I’m one of only 3 women who play in my guild; my husband got me into the game because it was causing a lot of trouble in our marriage. Essentially, he brought me down with him so I would stop arguing with him about the time he spent playing.

I now have a fully epic, level 70 hunter. I go on raids that take 3-5 hours at a time. We never go out. We trade time with each other so one can raid and the other watch the kids. We’ve invested so much I have never thought much about quitting the game, or that perhaps I stay because I worked hard for those epic boots.

Reading this post made me think about this. JD, I know you meant for this to be about sunk-cost fallacies, but talking about WoW hits a nerve because of its addictive nature. It took me a year to level a character (some people level to 70 in a month or two) because I played only occasionally, but lately I too have been using WoW to escape some pretty serious problems in my life. On top of the time spent and the cost involved, there is the issue of my husband’s obsession as well.

What would I do if I actually quit the game? Other than the extra $13/month, would I make real friends, in the city where I live, rather than talk to people I don’t really know and have never seen? And what would happen to my marriage? Would it crumble into pieces if my husband and I did not have this one thing in common? To tell the truth, WoW is what we talk about, when we talk.

Your post has given me a lot to think about. This, in effect, is what good writing is about — making people think. So, do not feel like you’ve failed in your writing; you’ve merely pushed a button you probably did not expect to push, and the sunk-cost allegory was lost in the shuffle.

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Tiffany

Here’s an example of sunk cost (from 2 years ago): Paying for a three-month subscription (instead of a one-month subscription) to a personals website, and one week into it meeting the man who I’ll be marrying in a couple months. There was a little more benefit to walking away from the paid subscription in that case, though.

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JACK

J.D., a good post, but a bit of nuance is needed. As someone trained in economics, I’ve long known of the sunk-cost fallacy. It’s a real problem and people screw up on it all the time.

But I wouldn’t say one should ignore completely what was paid for something, and just focus on future costs. The difference is between fungible goods and investments.

If you paid 10 bucks for a movie ticket, and you go in and find the movie horribly disgusting and revolting. It’s definitely a mistake, and sunk-cost fallacy, to sit there and say, “but I spent 10 bucks on this movie, so I need to stay”. Money’s gone. Only question now is whether you’d be better off staying or going.

Applied to investments, this gets trickier. Because while it is true that some people could fall into a sunk-cost fallacy that keeps them locked into a bad situation because of what they have already spent (rather than cutting their losses), it is also possible that people might misjudge the question of whether it is time to cut losses. In other words, with investments, the money is not entirely sunk. It calls for judgment and the sunk-cost fallacy is essentially a narrow version of the basic common sense principle of detachment. In this case, detachment from our need to not admit a mistake in past acts.

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Jennifer

J.D. I dont think it was you who are a bad writer, you quoted someone else “The sunk-cost fallacy describes our tendency to throw good money after bad.”

I think that is where we were misinformed…

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J.D.

Yes, Adrienne, that’s a great example! Trying to get your money’s worth at a buffet is engaging in the sunk-cost fallacy… 🙂

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Adrienne

My own personal sunk-cost fallacy is with all you can eat buffets. It’s a great place to bring the kids because there is no wait for the food and it keeps them entertained but I find myself eating way too much trying to get “my money’s worth”.

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shevy

I did the same sort of thing (obsessive play) with Dune and then Dune 2000 several years ago but at least it never cost me more money than purchasing the game itself.

Honestly, I’d still play it if the the disk hadn’t gotten so badly scratched that a third of it won’t work (the Atreides levels beyond the first one).

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J.D.

I feel like today I failed as a writer! 🙂

I don’t think I made it clear what the sunk-cost fallacy is. People seem to be equating “sunk cost” with “waste of money”, and while there’s an element of that here, they’re not the same thing.

Even something good can have a sunk cost. A sunk cost is just anything you’ve already spent. It’s not necessarily good or bad — it just is. The sunk-cost fallacy is believing you should spend more because you’ve already spent some. That’s what I was trying to write about.

Alas, I may have to tackle this topic again in the future…

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Cairsten

I have to admit, I would have tackled your problem from the other end: by scheduling your playtime, and using the parental controls to enforce them, with your wife to back it up. I’ve found that just the fact of being accountable to someone else for the way I spend my time has a great effect in limiting wasted time, and once you fall into the habit of only playing during your allotted hours, you probably would not have found it that hard to live with the restriction.

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mwarden

Ok, I guess in a way you can view this as a form of sunk-cost fallacy, but the other way to view it is perfectly logical. The first hour you play costs you $x. After you’ve paid that $x, the hours you play between then and six months from then are free. *IF* the marginal benefit of each of those hours is greater than zero, then you should play.

I think what you are saying is that the benefit was not > 0 because it was affecting other areas of your life. You are not losing additional money if you don’t continue to play, but I don’t think this is the best case of the fallacy, because marginal benefit over marginal cost increases after the first hour (or first minute, really). If you are risking losing your job because of the game, then that’s probably a greater cost than benefit, eh?

Sunk-cost really is a terrible fallacy, because it is so common and so irrational. So I’m glad to see it mentioned, regardless.

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AB

You could probably sell your WoW account, you know. Especially if you have a 6 month sub on it. It would help recoup those costs…

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Michelle

I do not feel this to be a Sunk-cost. Both my fiance and I play WoW and we play together. We think it’s a good social outlet, and nice way to spend some time together. Look at it this way, spend $15.00 a month (30.00 in our case) to be able to enjoy something together on our free time, which would otherwise be spent (and then some)on going out say…for the weekend. Drinks for two? You would spend about that same amount in just one weekend, let alone a whole month.

For us, WoW is helping us stay in and save money, not uselessly spending it.

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ThatGuy

The irony of all of this is that by quitting and writing about WOW (a very popular and polarizing topic), you may have driven more traffic to your site and thus more income. Chances are if enough people start reading your blog because of this entry, that $80 dollars might be some of the best money you have ever spent.

-ThatGuy

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Charlotte

#20 partgypsy

We had the same experience with our dog Mulder. Week by week we wanted to take him back to the shelter. On the 4th week or so, I looked at him and felt sorry…then I looked at my husband. He said “ok, let’s do everything we can to make him part of the family”. We never looked back, he is our pride and joy, now almost a year old. It takes work but it is totally worth it. Watch the Dog Whisperer shows on NatGeo and read Cesar Millan’s books. Before you know it he will be an obedient doggie. We also save money on entertainment because we enjoy just hiking with him etc.

Boy I blew it this year, and I mean that. I set us up on a savings plan this year and had it planned out that we would have 10k by the end of the year (I am the only income earner). Excited my hubby and I worked on the plan and saved over 5k. Then summer hit, bam. We blew it… we now have 2k on our CC and have dwindled our savings down to 2.5k.
I suppose I should have paid off all of our debt first instead of building up this large savings account.
Sunk cost fallacy – I am now planning to pay down our debt first. I do not want to sink money again into savings when I have debt that could have been reduced.

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Rondondo

I almost fell into the sunk cost fallacy when I bought a sportscar last year. It’s a gorgeous car (Audi TT Special Edition) and I was really in love with it for a number of months. I think I wanted it because I’ve never had a car like that in my life and figured I was successful and deserved it. I can totally afford the car, or even a much more expensive car for that matter. The truth is that it’s just an impractical third car for me and mostly sits in the garage looking pretty. I rarely have a chance to drive it due to the fact that I run a small business that consumes my time and requires the ability to transport tools and pinball machines.

I’ve been going back and forth in my mind over whether I should keep it or just take the depreciation hit now (about 8K!) before it depreciates even further. I’ve decided to sell it. It’s on Craigslist now with a couple of interested parties. If it’s not sold by the end of the month, I’m selling it back to the dealer I purchased it from, taking a somewhat bigger loss, but it will be out of my garage and out of my mind. What I’ve also done was traded in my old 2002 Subaru for a brand new work vehicle, a Honda Element. I love the new vehicle and would rather drive it than the fancy sportscar!

I wish I saw this sooner, but then, I was preoccupied with the Freddie and Fannie takeover….

I had a WOW account. I think I played in moderation (although I use that term loosely), but ultimately canceled it because I didn’t want to pay the monthly fee.

I use to play Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, and Starcraft all the time too. They were more time-sink than money-sinks I think….

I’m now on Team Fortress 2, but again, more of a time-sink. Again, I don’t think I over-do it. Just started playing again last weekend, but only because a friend asked.

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Daniel Gibbons

I absolutely love this post. It reminds me of working at a dot-com company in the first bubble and as all dot-com stocks started to fall before the collapse everyone would talk about “averaging down”. That is, buying more shares while the price fell to reduce their average price paid per share. But whichever way you cut it, you’re still committing more money to a losing investment, and most of those people ended up “averaging down” in an entirely different way than they’d hoped…

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Jordan

I’ve heard of a guy going to his lay minister for dating advice (I heard the story through the minister). The guy had been dating a girl for quite some time, so he figured he kind of had to marry her after investing all that in the relationship.

The minister was an economics professor in his day job. He told this guy, straight up, “It’s a sunk cost. Forget it. Move on.”

But it seems like there might be times when we should take sunk costs into account. I can’t think of any examples, though–can anyone else?

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J.D.

Also, I think some of you are missing the point. I’m not arguing that World of Warcraft is a bad thing. I’m using it as an example of me succumbing to the sunk-cost fallacy. If I were to justify my continued playing because (a) I’d already spent money on the next five months and (b) I’d already devoted 80 hours to the game, I’d basically be falling into this trap. What I’m saying is that it’s important for me to cast aside this thinking and make my decision based on the future benefit it would bring me…

This post was intended to be about the sunk-cost fallacy, not about World of Warcraft. 🙂

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J.D.

I agree that World of Warcraft (and all Blizzard games, to be honest) is a great value financially in terms of getting pleasure for what you spend on it. It’s some of the best cheap fun I’ve ever had in my life.

HOWEVER, it’s not a good value for ME in terms of time, self-esteem, and money I forego by playing. Because it takes a huge amount of my time (because I’m not personally able to exercise restraint), I get less writing done, and less writing means less income.

I wish I were one of those people who could play just a couple hours a week, but I’m not.

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partgypsy

We have a similar situation, but with a dog. He is a rescue dog, and have been working with him for 5 months. So far we have purchased licence, crate, dog bed, toys, new fence, dog training classes, vet bills, and lots of time and aggravation, but he is still not meshed with our family. The whole idea is that eventually he will be a good companion animal that we will have for many years, but the payoff right now has only been stress on our marriage. But at the least he is a living creature, not a video game.

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Mkg

Thanks for sharing your experience I have never played but there are certain things in my life I can compare this with its nice to realize when you fall you can always get back on track!

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Wesley

I’m with you on this one…I had a similar experience with Diablo 2. It was a huge time-sink, and when I was online with friends, I felt obligated to keep playing…I didn’t want to let them down. It ended up leading to a serious discussion with my wife (not the pleasent kind). We worked it out and I walked away.

I think any sort of reality escape can get out of hand, WoW is just really good at it.

Great article!

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Brian Arnold

Back some months ago, I saw WoW Detox linked, and it led to me writing up my thoughts on WoW, and the time and money spent on it.

I generally agree with the concept of the sunk-cost fallacy, and I can see where it’d go with WoW, but for me and my wife, it’s probably some of the best $30 we spend each month.

In terms of dollars-per-hour, it’s fairly cheap, and the more you play, the more you get out of your money.

Like all things, people need to exercise moderation. As mentioned in the post, we do other things. I don’t think I’ve played more than an hour at a time for a few weeks now. We’ll often plan out a WoW night and play for a few hours then, but those are coming fewer and farther between. Between my jobs and her graduate student work, there isn’t time for it.

With control, it’s a great recreation. It can be done, and my wife and I are living proof of it.

I appreciate that you’re using it for the specific example here, but I’ve also read a lot of stuff that says basically WoW=wasted time and cash, which simply isn’t true as a generalization. It’s cheaper than buying a bunch of DVDs, the time aspect can be controlled, and there’s a myriad of ways to enjoy yourself. My wife and I both have our endgame raiding characters, but we also have our little lowbies to play around with for something different.

The time spent playing together only strengthens our relationship, and so it’s not a waste at all. It’s one of the stronger positive forces in my life right now, and I’d hate for people to think that it’s just a stupid time- and money-sink with it all going to waste.

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jtimberman

The same sunk-cost fallacy is what kept me from throwing out the miniatures I commented about in another post here recently.

I had spent so much money, even though it was almost 15 years ago, that I couldn’t justify dumping everything. I think people do this more than they realize.

Right now I’ve got a sunk-cost fallacy issue sitting by the curb in front of my house. We have a paid-for car that we bought early this year for $2000. We just put $800 into repairing it, and now it needs another $400 to get running again. I have a tentative offer from my mechanic to buy it for $450. We could fix and sell it, and make maybe $1500 total (less repairs, net $1100), but more like $1000 ($600).

I’m thinking if he’ll pay to tow it, he can have it for the $450. I don’t think it’s worth my time and money at this point to deal with.

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keith twombley

World of Warcraft has been a great tool *for* my financial well-being.

WOW is the only game I play now.

Instead of looking at it as a $15 recurring cost, I look at what it’s saving me.

I don’t buy other video games. That’s a savings of $50-$150 per month right there. I only go out to see movies that I really really want to see (saving me $20 a week at least). Same with going out to restaurants.

Sure, there’s something to be said against a life of WOW-inspired hermitage, but financially, it makes a lot of sense 🙂

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mbrogz3000

Thats exactly where I saw myself going with WoW after only 2 weeks of playing it. It was going to be expensive AND consume mountains of my free time. I ended up selling my game and remaining trial on ebay, only losing like $10 or so. Distractions like this are a terrible thing though, and probably costing even more than the monetary cost to play.

I wasted a good bit of that solid-GPA-building freshman year of college playing Starcraft. I actually ‘infected’ my dorm by introducing it to everyone, and instead of studying we’d play Starcraft. Studying became something that I crammed in, not made time for. And just when we were done playing Starcraft by Christmas time, Broodwar was released during the break and it began all over again for that 2nd semester. In the big picture, if I would have had less Distractions like this, I probably would have been able to get off to a better start in college. A game, which undoubtedly was and is fun to play, pretty much helped to bring out laziness and set an initial tone of mediocrity for my college career. Looking back, it definitely was not worth what I got out of it, which is nothing, and I now always wonder how much better I could have initially done in college without SC, as well with fewer other Distractions (outside of ‘weekend gatherings’, of course) that I had.

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Shanel Yang

This is a common problem with new Hold ‘Em players. They hate the idea of folding if they’ve already put any money into the pot. The more they put in, the more they hate to fold. Even if their hand gets progressively worse and it becomes increasingly obvious the other side bluffed you into staying in the game in the first place. They just keep hanging onto that slim chance of getting their money back rather than kiss all those chips goodbye for good. For the same reason, even if they have a good hand, they’ll fold if another player tries to make them go all in — even if they would have slowly bet pretty much all of it anyway. That fear of loss is greater than the promise of the win! Craziness!!

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Adam

“remember that your goal is to maximize your wealth and your enjoyment.”

I think that this is a great way to look at things. Playing it out in the WoW example, if you’ve spent $80, and played 80 hours, and enjoyed them, then you’ve spent about a dollar an hour for something you enjoyed. If that enjoyment was worth a dollar an hour, then you’re already ahead.

Looking at the other way, you’re now noticing that other facets of your life are starting to suffer, so in this case, to maximize your enjoyment (of your overall life), then stopping is the right choice no matter how you look at it.

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WiseMoneyMatters

I was addicted to WoW for quite some time. The first few days I owned it, I played it 14 hours per day. It was ridiculous. I had to learn the hard way to just walk away, even though I was really attached to my character and all the time and energy I put into the game.

Great article.

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Strabo

I love WoW as casual game. 11 € a month for unlimited time has saved me a lot of money by not buying other entertainment just to pass some idle time. Learning to take it in moderation is the important thing.

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Jennifer

WoW is what you make it to be. For awhile when I was between jobs I played a lot. So much that my husband informed me that it was kind of taking over my life more than it should. I listened to him and I stopped playing as much. Now I organize my WoW time around my calendar, instead of the other way around.

However, I must say that I have met some really amazing and fun people on WoW. I’m not a very social person, and this game has made it really fun to talk to people in kind of an anonymous way.

There is a healthy balance, really anything can become an addiction. It is kind of shame that video games gets the brunt of shame, when there are other worse addictions out there.

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kick_push

that’s the thing w/ warcraft.. that game never stops.. there’s always something you want to improve on.. and it takes time to get there

i know i’m screwed.. because when the expansion comes out.. i’m sure i’ll be playing again lol

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Steven Fisher

I have a completely different experience with World of Warcraft. I downloaded the demo, played it, and liked it… and realized I’d love it as a casual game for a couple hours every other weekend.

I realized I’d never really advance at that rate. Honestly, that doesn’t bother me much, though it would make it hard to group.

I realized I’d be paying the same amount as someone who played 20 or more hours a week.

And I decided to just let the trial expire. Why pay for extra frustration in my life?

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kick_push

i’ve had a world of warcraft account for almost 2 years now.. i don’t know how to feel about it.. it has it’s positives and negatives..

one positive is you save money because you spend most of your time indoors.. it is a great time killer

you already mentioned the negatives (takes over your life, mental and physical health, etc..).. i’ve even heard stories of this game ruining relationships

i rarely play anymore.. but i keep my account on because my brother plays a lot more than i do..

i have a 70 dwarf warrior (alliance).. and another orc warrior (horde) that i’ve yet to level.. i think he’s at 12 right now

i rarely see some of my friends anymore because they are so into this game.. it was fun playing w/ them for a while.. but after a while you just get tired of it.. i have other interests besides playing a game hours in a day

i’m already sitting at a desk 40 hours a week.. i don’t want to be doing that another 20 hours playing warcraft

madden 2009 is my new addiction these days lol.. i’ve played over 100 games online already.. and i’ve only had the game a month =O

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Adam

I know there are a number of secondary market websites where you can sell your characters/whatever else you get in that game.

You should check it out…maybe you can get some of your investment back!

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Simon

I have had quite the similar experience. I played Diablo 2, another product by Blizzard, which totally took over my life. I wasted a lot of time playing instead of studying. Even though the online play was free, it does mess up many aspects of our lives.

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J.D.

Nice, Jonathan. I’d never seen that site before. The second comment on the front page right now has a perfect example of the sunk-cost fallacy:

#33371
I hate WoW. It turned my friend into a mindless freak. He was so obsessed with the game, when he called once, I told him I was at my grandmother’s funeral. And the only thing he could say was

“What? You can’t play later?”

And he’s lost his social life and has become a total loser because “I need to finish up my one month WoW card.”

And Tina, your example is perfect, too. (Though I’m sorry you had to go through it.)

I should have pointed out in the article that salesmen use the sunk-cost fallacy all the time. “You’ve already invested X amount of time or Y amount of money in your Thneed — you should really invest a little more.”

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Jonathan from Master Your Card

WoW is a perfect example of the sunk-cost fallacy, and one that hits particularly close to home. There’s something disturbingly addictive about MMORPG’s (to me, anyway), and I’ve always stayed away from them as much as I can because I’m not sure if I have the willpower to get out once I truly get in.

J.D, don’t know if you have ever seen http://www.wowdetox.com/. If not, it is well worth a quick browse every now and again. It will put you off of going back to the dark side in no time at all 🙂

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Tina from Frugal Sisters

My expercience is a lot more dramatic. On the day of my first wedding I had a fleeting moment of becoming a run-away bride. The only reason I didn’t leave my x-husband at the alter was the money that I had already put into the wedding. Well, I should have left him at the alter. It cost me a lot of money and stress to be married to a man that didn’t know what it meant to save a penny. He spent every penny we both made and more. I didn’t know that he had borrowed money from my family until after the divorce. This lesson I learned the hard way.

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